The October Issue is at the Printer – Subscribe Now So You Don’t Miss Out!

Yesterday, Linda Watts (our designer extraordinaire) and I approved the printer’s proofs for the October 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. That means, because of the wacky way magazine subscriptions work, you have only three more days to sign up for a digital subscription and receive the October issue as the first one in your digital sub. Subscribe by July 25, and you’ll be able to download the issue to read on your computer or PDF-enabled eReader (including iPads).

So what’s in the issue? If you click on the picture at left, you’ll be better able to read the coverlines (that’s true for most of the blog pictures, by the way – if you want to see a big picture, as it were, just click on it).

But even if your eyes are as crappy as mine (that’s what staring at a computer for 15 years will do to you), you can no doubt see the shiny brass and rosewood try square. That’s a shop-made version of the Bridge City Tool Works TS-2 Master Try Square – one of two tools on which John Economaki founded the company – and John shows you, step by step, how to make it in your shop using equipment you probably already own.

We also have “The Best Oak Money Can’t Buy,” from 17th-century-style joiner Peter Follansbee. Peter tells you why riven oak is the best for joinery, and shows you how to rive your own. (See my note at the bottom – this technique may be the death of me.)

Rob Millard, the wunderkind of Federal Furniture, shares his simple router jig method for making the diamond inlay banding that’s a hallmark of the Federal style (a half-day of work, and you’ll have 70′ of this striking inlay ready to use).

Award-winning furniture designer, maker, author and teacher Jeff Miller investigates the science and shape behind a comfortable rocking chair, and teaches you how to apply what he’s learned to your own designs.

Toshio Odate returns to Popular Woodworking‘s pages with a philosophical piece on how the spirit of the maker infuses the objects he or she uses and builds (in other words, be nice to your tools, have fun while you’re building, and your work will benefit).

Ajax Alexandre, our online community editor, shares plans for a clever Portuguese folding table – make a pair, and you have portable tables that work great in the shop, on your patio or in front of your television.

And of course, you’ll find our regular columns – including the return of Adam Cherubini as our Arts & Mysteries columnist and a simple and inexpensive toothing plane from Don Williams in Tricks of the Trade.

p.s. I’ll be riving oak next week under Peter’s tutelage in Pittsboro, N.C. at The Woodwright’s School. While I’m very much looking forward to wielding sledgehammer and froe, I do wish some freak storm would get rid of this torrid weather. My people are from peat bogs; hard physical labor in 100+ temps does not appeal. Thank goodness there’s a bar just behind the school, and ice cream just down the block.

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